Latest Stories

Latest Stories

Government

Related

TOPICS

Uncategorized Article

Former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker is closing a chapter in
his campaign against the rising tide of government debt, but he is
urging his fellow CPAs to help fight against what he calls fiscal
irresponsibility by elected leaders.

Walker released the final report of his Comeback America Initiative,
once again highlighting problems facing the finances of the federal
government, states, and cities. The report is available at tinyurl.com/p4czdoo. Walker said
he is closing his not-for-profit initiative to keep a long-standing
commitment to his wife, Mary, to spend more time with his family.

But he is not retiring, he said, and as long as he is healthy, he
won’t quit his fight for government fiscal responsibility. He called
on CPAs to join him.

“People need to keep in mind that the ‘P’ in ‘CPA’ stands for
‘Public,’ ” Walker said during an interview with the JofA.
“We have a public trust. We have to act in the public interest. We
need make sure we are taking steps that improve accounting and
reporting for governments. We’ve come a long way, but we’ve got a ways
to go.”

The final Comeback America report presents a calculation that
combines the federal government’s explicit liabilities, commitments,
contingencies, and unfunded Social Security and Medicare promises.

In present-value dollars, the total in 2012 of these
“off-balance-sheet obligations” was $69.7 trillion, or $221,400 per
person. The total has more than tripled since 2000, when it was $20.4
trillion, according to Walker’s analysis. Walker said most states and
many cities also have financial problems that mirror the federal
government’s, with unfunded obligations for retirement and retiree
health care, and outdated tax systems.

The results of the 2016 presidential election are likely to have a big impact on federal tax policy in the coming years. Eddie Adkins, CPA, a partner in the Washington National Tax Office at Grant Thornton, discusses what parts of the ACA might survive the repeal of most of the law.